How Psychiatrist Loretta Bender Treated Children with Electric Shock and Drugs

The history of medicine is full of cases where cruel and sometimes barbaric methods were used to treat and prevent diseases. This happened especially often in psychiatry, which for many years served as a testing ground for dangerous experiments. Many of them, including lobotomy, appeared in the 20th century, in the era of science and progress. American psychiatrist Lauretta Bender made a significant contribution to child psychiatry, but her methods are horrifying: she treated schizophrenia in children with electric shock and other harsh methods.

The personality of Loretta Bender is quite controversial. Without a doubt, this woman was a talented psychoneurologist and made an important contribution to science. But at the same time, many of her treatment methods were cruel and not only did not help patients, but even worsened their condition, adding new suffering.

Loretta Bender was born on August 9, 1897, in Brutt, Montana, USA. She had a hard time learning as a child, probably due to dyslexia. It took the girl three years to finish first grade. At school, she was considered mentally retarded, and her parents had to do extra homework with her. They made great efforts to help their daughter master the school curriculum.

Thanks to the support and patience of her loved ones, by the time she graduated from school, Loretta was no different from her peers. She successfully entered the university and received a bachelor's degree in 1922. A year later, Bender became a master's student, and in 1926 she defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Iowa School of Medicine. By the way, her first scientific work was devoted to the topic "Hematological studies of experimental tuberculosis in guinea pigs."

Despite the specifics of her doctoral dissertation, Bender decided to devote herself to psychiatry. She traveled the world for several years, gaining experience in different clinics. As she herself said, these trips helped her expand her professional horizons. Having explored clinics in Europe, Asia, and both Americas, Loretta returned to the United States and began working at the Boston Psychiatric Hospital.

This medical institution specialized in psychopathic disorders. Loretta was entrusted not only with treating patients, but was also allowed to conduct scientific research. Ambitious and energetic, Dr. Bender threw herself into her work. At the same time, she managed to get married and give birth to three children, one after another.

Loretta noted that her children inherited her disorder and had great difficulty learning even simple things. Her husband died tragically in a car accident, leaving her a widow. After this loss, Loretta devoted herself to work and raising her children for many years. She did not remarry until later in life.

At the Boston Clinic, Bender focused on treating mental disorders in children. The unit she headed housed abandoned children. Their parents either abandoned them at birth or were unable to provide adequate care. It could be said that these little patients were completely under Loretta’s control, and often no one else cared about them.

In the 1930s, when Bender was active, child psychiatry was just emerging as a field. Diagnostics left much to be desired: many illnesses were attributed to poor upbringing or innate character. In addition, racial differences were highly valued at the time, and black patients were often treated separately from white patients. To Dr. Bender’s credit, she did not discriminate by skin color; her methods were applied equally to everyone, regardless of background.

After several years of working in Boston, the doctor moved to New York's Bellevue Hospital. It was there that her career reached its peak. Loretta Bender became the first psychiatrist to actively diagnose "childhood schizophrenia." Even those who only had behavioral problems or developmental delays received it. The doctor used dozens of methods for treatment - both borrowed and her own. But the one she loved most was electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Electroconvulsive therapy was first used to treat children in France in the early 1940s. After studying the materials of Parisian clinics, Bender concluded that the method worked. It is worth telling in more detail how this procedure was carried out. The patient was firmly tied with belts to the couch, and electrodes were attached to the temples, sometimes wrapped in wet gauze for better conductivity of the current.

The electrodes were supplied with a current that penetrated the brain, causing severe pain and excruciating convulsions. By changing the current strength, the placement of the electrodes, and other parameters, psychiatrists tried to find the “optimal” solution for each case. ECT is still used in psychiatry today, but with extreme caution—as one of the most radical treatment methods. In modern medicine, there are ongoing debates around this method.

In 1947, Bender administered ECT to 98 children diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia. At the time, little was known about the effects of such therapy on the body, and Loretta boldly experimented. The children were forced to undergo tests before and after ECT. The doctor noticed that after each session, the children became more anxious. Their verbal abilities also worsened — the little patients’ drawings became more primitive.

But that wasn't enough for Loretta Bender. She supplemented electroconvulsive therapy with experiments with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25). Yes, we're talking about the same LSD that everyone knows. In those years, effective psychotropic drugs didn't yet exist, but doctors were actively experimenting with narcotic substances.

Another method Bender used that was more like torture was insulin shock treatment combined with metrazol. The patient was injected with large amounts of insulin to induce a coma, and then metrazol was used to provoke epileptic seizures. Sometimes these procedures ended in death, especially in children. With the advent of modern psychotropic drugs, ECT and insulin shock have gradually faded into the background.

Bender's experiments on sick children were painful and dangerous. Today, the doctor could easily get a life sentence for implementing her bold ideas. But in the 1930s and 50s, everything she did was considered acceptable. Moreover, despite the cruelty of her methods, Loretta Bender really made a significant contribution to the development of medical science.

The woman was one of the first to seriously study autism. Her diagnostic methods allowed this disorder to be detected at a very early age. True, Bender was obsessed with the idea of childhood schizophrenia and considered autism to be one of its manifestations. Nevertheless, the foundation laid by the scientist more than 70 years ago is still used in medicine.

Loretta Bender became the leader of the movement of psychiatrists who opposed Freudian views on childhood disorders. With the advent of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, it began to be used everywhere, including in work with children. According to Freud and his followers, childhood anxiety arose from early hostility and aggression.

Dr. Bender strongly rejected this point of view. She believed that childhood anxiety, aggression, and hostility were caused by frustration or developmental problems, physical or environmental. Loretta believed that it was necessary to improve the way children were treated in families, and not to thoughtlessly send them to an orphanage or mental hospital for every problem. This is undoubtedly her merit as a doctor and scientist. Loretta Bender died in 1987, at the age of 90. She continued to work until the last days of her life.

Loretta Bender's story is a shining example of how science can advance medicine, but also give rise to controversial and even cruel treatments. Do you think such experiments can be justified if they contributed to the development of psychiatry? Share your opinion in the comments!